D'you call life a bad job? Never! We've had our ups and downs, we've had our struggles, we've always been poor, but it's been worth it, ay, worth it a hundred times I say when I look round at my children.

I made up my mind long ago that life was too short to do anything for myself that I could pay others to do for me.

There is no more merit in being able to attach a correct description to a picture than in being able to find out what is wrong with a stalled motorcar. In each case it is special knowledge.

Why did you look at the sunset?' Philip answered with his mouth full: Because I was happy.

Music-hall songs provide the dull with wit, just as proverbs provide them with wisdom.

You cannot write well or much (and I venture the opinion that you cannot write well unless you write much) unless you form a habit.

You've been brought up like a gentleman and a Christian, and I should be false to the trust laid upon me by your dead father and mother if I allowed you to expose yourself to such temptation.' Well, I know I'm not a Christian and I'm beginning to doubt whether I'm a gentleman,' said Philip.